The president of the Dominican Republic declared three days of official mourning yesterday as it became clear that as many as 175 of the victims of Flight 587 were from the Caribbean country.

Many were returning from New York for holidays and reunions with families.

"This is a great hurt for the Dominican Republic and for the United States," the vice-president, Milagros Ortiz Bosch, said.

The focus of the tragedy was initially at Las Americas international airport in Santo Domingo, where relatives and friends had gathered to seek news of passengers.

A customs officer on duty at the airport at the time the flight was due to arrive fainted when he discovered that his wife and children were on board.

Now the focus shifts to the rest of the island as mourning begins for the passengers, many of whom had left the impoverished country so that they could send money back to their families, and whose rare visits were a cause for celebration and partying.

President Hipolito Mejia said he understood that many citizens had died.

"The president of the republic expresses his profound sadness over this tragedy and offers his condolences to family and friends of the victims," the presidential spokesman Luis Fabrae said.

An estimated 41 Dominicans, mainly catering and cleaning workers, died in New York on September 11, and the president attended memorials in the United States last month.

Although the initial investigation suggested that the crash was an accident, the Dominican authorities have stepped up security and drafted armed troops into the airport area.

The effect of the crash was felt throughout the Dominican diaspora, which is centred on New York but has a large presence in Florida.

Mrs Mercedes lost two aunts in the crash. "She had talked to her tias last night," Mr Mercedes told the Miami Herald.

"She remembered they said they were taking a morning flight out of New York. She was destroyed."

Dominicans in South Florida gathered in a Pompano Beach church to pray for those killed in the crash.

"Inside my heart I would cry the same way because they're my brothers and my blood ... I feel real, real bad for them," Felix Pimental said.

The country will suffer a double economic blow: tourism has been badly affected by the events of September 11 and is likely to be further damaged; and many of those on the flight helped to keep the economy afloat by sending back money to their relatives.

The last major plane disaster to hit the country was in February 1996, when a Dominican Alas Nacionales Boeing 757 with 189 passengers on board crashed into the sea.